Schools are a critical setting for improving child nutrition and food security and preventing obesity in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture mandates that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--Education, known as CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) in California, implements obesity prevention efforts that utilize…

The problem that was addressed in this study was that the teacher evaluation system in a small rural public school in Northern California needed to be examined for teacher effectiveness. This was important to identify perceptions of administration and teachers who stated concern about the effectiveness of the district's teacher evaluation system.…

The proliferation of an expanding English second language community has led to an increasing number of English language learner (ELL) students enrolling within the California public schools system. This research study sought to understand how teacher self-efficacy affected ELL assessment outcomes and the role professional development had in…

Oral language is foundational to literacy. Because their language is under construction, emergent bilingual students have unique needs related to literacy development regardless of the language of instruction. Knowledge teachers gain through formative assessment of student oral language can guide decisions about literacy instruction. The purpose…

Educational leaders are increasingly expected to use school climate data to improve outcomes and promote equity for all learners, including in California where school climate is included in state accountability policy. In this study, beliefs towards school climate assessment were explored in a sample (n=298) of California superintendents using a…

Summit Public Schools (SPS), a California-based charter school network established in 2003, is widely promoted nationally as a success story to be emulated. A policy environment friendly to charter schools and digital technologies, together with hundreds of millions of dollars in technology industry contributions, enabled its growth and its…

This memo, which is the fifth in the series, highlights the ongoing work of the Leadership Public Schools (LPS) Network--a network of three high schools in Northern California serving about 1,500 students with 98% identifying as people of color and 80% qualifying for free and reduced lunch. LPS, driven by their belief that students are serious and…

The transition from high school into postsecondary education and a career has become particularly challenging given today's complex, fast-moving, and highly technological economy. To combat this problem, one approach widely adopted in the United States is the career academy model, which combines a college-preparatory and career and technical…

The number of Black males serving in the principal position drastically declined following the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which led to the desegregation of public schools. This unexpected outcome of Brown v. Board of Education caused Black educators to lose their jobs after being deemed unqualified to serve as teachers and…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how K-12 public school administrators describe their practice of culturally responsive leadership (CRL) and their practice of California Professional Standards of Educational Leaders (CPSEL). There were four research questions that guided this study: (1) How do K-12 public school…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting changes in schooling have been particularly difficult for students learning the English language. Recent research indicates that nearly 40 percent of English learners (ELs) nationwide were not receiving the services and support they needed to successfully engage with academic content during distance learning…

Background: Few nutrition interventions in kindergarten classes have been evaluated, and none has been tested for program effectiveness, implementation, and dissemination. Building a Healthy Me (BHM) is a nutrition intervention for kindergarteners that is classroom-based and includes a family component. This study evaluated the public health…

The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was a multiyear effort to improve student outcomes--particularly high school graduation and college attendance among low-income minority students--by increasing student access to effective teaching. The RAND Corporation worked…

In 2019, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation engaged SRI Education to "refresh" a 2007 study, published as "An Unfinished Canvas" (Woodworth et al., 2007). In 2022, SRI released "Creativity Challenge" (Woodworth et al., 2022). Both studies were commissioned to assess the status of arts education in California,…